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We all know and love the CBRS band from 3550-3700MHz. There are certain incumbents in that band (cough DoD, cough) but a sharing mechanism has been established. Part of the sharing mechanism involves reduced power to avoid interference with the incumbents. What about the band above it, 3.7-4.2GHz? Well it turns out that Intelsat owns all of it as of right now. However the wireless operators have been eyeing it for a while. Verizon wants to buy a chunk of it from Intelsat, let's say 100Mhz and let Intelsat use the rest for whatever they're using it right now. T-Mobile wants the FCC to have a two phase auction ala 600Mhz auction in which Intelsat gets compensated by the proceeds of the auction. AT&T does not seem to be interested because they're busy with the Firstnet deployment and who knows what Sprint is thinking? Well what about Dish, where do they come in? Well it was long thought that Verizon was the only customer for their spectrum. What happens if Verizon gets a chunk of the 3.7-42GHz band? Between LAA, CBRS and this new band, it seems that Dish's spectrum has no buyers anymore. Tim Farrar explains it very well here:

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We all know and love the CBRS band from 3550-3700MHz. There are certain incumbents in that band (cough DoD, cough) but a sharing mechanism has been established. Part of the sharing mechanism involves reduced power to avoid interference with the incumbents. What about the band above it, 3.7-4.2GHz? Well it turns out that Intelsat owns all of it as of right now. However the wireless operators have been eyeing it for a while. Verizon wants to buy a chunk of it from Intelsat, let's say 100Mhz and let Intelsat use the rest for whatever they're using it right now. T-Mobile wants the FCC to have a two phase auction ala 600Mhz auction in which Intelsat gets compensated by the proceeds of the auction. AT&T does not seem to be interested because they're busy with the Firstnet deployment and who knows what Sprint is thinking? Well what about Dish, where do they come in? Well it was long thought that Verizon was the only customer for their spectrum. What happens if Verizon gets a chunk of the 3.7-42GHz band? Between LAA, CBRS and this new band, it seems that Dish's spectrum has no buyers anymore. Tim Farrar explains it very well here:http://tmfassociates.com/blog/2018/01/29/the-art-of-the-deal/

Hmm sprint can definitely use it....but low band should be the priority.....plus no current handsets support it..;

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What about the band above it, 3.7-4.2GHz? Well it turns out that Intelsat owns all of it as of right now.

Er, that's not true. It's allocated to the C-band satellite service. The licenses are, as I understand it, nationwide, but vary based on which slot in the sky the satellite is in. So Intelsat has some slots, SES has some, and there are other companies as well that I'm not familiar with.

While I do agree they should (and we all know they will) be replaced, but if enabling 3x and 4x extends the hardware's life a bit longer before being replaced I'm all for it.
I'd rather see them invest in areas that lack b41 first before replacing hardware that could potentially still serve areas well for a bit longer.

Clearwire sites are gradually being replaced. I've found at least 4 in the Kansas City area that have been upgraded from Sprint NV/Clear B41 to 8T8R or from Clear only to full Sprint equipment. Doesn't help your market, but this should be happening in most Clear markets to some degree.
Sent from my LG G6

Happy to see them doing this but they really should be replacing these sites with newer equipment. These clear sites are in some of the busiest areas. When Wimax was around these site provided all the coverage. I was hoping to see Mimo equipment replacing these sites this year.